Who Will Say What Now?

I came across this tonight, which apparently is one of the things the Qur'an says about Jesus:

"And behold! God will say [i.e. on the Day of Judgment]: 'Oh Jesus, the son of Mary! Did you say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of God?' He will say: 'Glory to Thee! Never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, You would indeed have known it. You know what is in my heart, though I know not what is in Yours. For You know in full all that is hidden. Never did I say to them anything except what You commanded me to say: 'Worship God, my Lord and your Lord.' And I was a witness over them while I lived among them. When You took me up, You were the Watcher over them, and You are a witness to all things'" (5:116-117).

I assume this goes along with the line of thinking that Jesus was a prophet and never claimed to be God. While a read through the New Testament should clearly refute that claim, that's not the point of this post.

Look at what it says. It talks about worshiping Jesus AND Mary. Worshiping Mary is not found anywhere in the pages of the Bible. We are to worship God, and God alone, and Mary is not God. Worshiping Mary is something associated with the Catholic church, which has many practices and teachings that are not found in the pages of scripture.

Whoever wrote that bit in the Qur'an was off target, because it sounds like whoever wrote that bit was looking at the practices of the Catholic church in that area, at that time, and condemning those practices -- rather than looking at what Jesus' own followers from the 1st century wrote down about him and his teachings and what Jesus' own followers practiced!

So now I ask the question, why would God ask Jesus "Did you say unto men, worship me and my mother..."? I ask this, because the question in itself reveals a lack of understanding about what Jesus actually taught while he was on earth, and what disciples of Jesus actually believed and practiced. The only logical conclusion is that God would not ask such a question, which in turn means that text quoting it cannot be from God, but rather from man.

By the grace of God I already knew this, but I pray that God pour out his Spirit on those who do not so that they come to realize who Jesus is and what he did for us on the cross.

Grace and Peace